NEW DELHI: Multiple videos from airports across the country on Friday captured scenes of massive chaos, with passengers lying on terminal floors, crowding airline counters and demanding answers from officials as IndiGo’s operational crisis spiralled into one of the worst meltdowns India’s aviation sector has seen in years.Footage from Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports showed serpentine queues, exhausted travellers dozing on the ground and passengers pleading for information after flights were cancelled with little notice.
Sources said IndiGo cancelled more than 400 flights nationwide, while a large number of others were delayed, leaving thousands stranded.At Delhi airport, over 220 flights — including arrivals and departures — were cancelled through the day. Bengaluru reported more than 100 cancellations, while Hyderabad saw over 90. Several other airports also reported heavy disruptions.Passengers said airline staff were unable to provide clarity on revised timings. “People are just lying everywhere. No one is telling us anything,” a flyer at Mumbai airport said in one of the viral videos.IndiGo has been grappling with severe operational disruptions triggered by cabin crew shortages and other internal issues, sending its on-time performance crashing to an unprecedented 8.5% on Thursday, its lowest ever and the first time it has entered single digits.The crisis deepened further on Friday when the Delhi airport announced that all IndiGo domestic departures from IGI Airport were cancelled till 11.59 pm.The collapse of India’s largest carrier — which operates over 2,200 flights daily and holds 64% of the domestic market — has set off a frantic surge in demand for tickets on other airlines, pushing airfares to staggering levels.One-way economy fares for Delhi–Mumbai for Sunday (Dec 7) were quoting between Rs 21,500 and Rs 39,000 on non-IndiGo airlines. Bengaluru–Kolkata was at Rs 20,000–23,000, while Chennai–Delhi touched Rs 21,000.Routes from smaller cities saw even sharper spikes — Udaipur–Delhi was between Rs 15,300 and Rs 26,400, and Udaipur–Mumbai surged to Rs 24,000–35,000.With IndiGo’s network crumbling, “a large segment of the travelling public is now chasing tickets of the remaining 34% market share carriers, so fares are skyrocketing,” an industry official said.Thousands of passengers stuck in different cities said they had no choice but to buy exorbitantly priced tickets just to return home.The civil aviation ministry and the DGCA have been monitoring the crisis. On Thursday, IndiGo informed the regulator that it expected full operational stabilisation only by February 10, 2026.For now, the videos flooding social media reflect a single message: India’s busiest airports struggled to cope as the country’s largest airline buckled under pressure.
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